Corporate & Hospitality

Qantas Joeys go down to Portugal

Qantas Joeys go down to Portugal in opening match of the FA Men's U17 International Tournament

Scunthorpe, England

26 August 2010

The Qantas Joeys have been narrowly defeated 3-4 by Portugal in their thrilling opening match of the FA Men's U17 International Tournament played at Glanford Park in Scunthorpe, England.

Qantas Joeys Head Coach Jan Versleijen added young Western Australian striker Dylan Tombides, who is currently playing with the West Ham Academy, to his squad following his impressive performance at the pre-tournament training camp.

The opening twenty minutes saw both teams share possession with the Qantas Joeys having the better of the play.

The Qantas Joeys opened the scoring in the 25th minute after a ball played down the left to Brodie Patterson was inside to Kwabena Boahene. Boahene-s shot on goal was deflected to Anthony Proai who neatly placed the ball past the Portuguese goalkeeper, Jose Costa.

After conceding the opening goal, Portugal began to attack, with Qantas Joeys goalkeeper Paul Izzo called upon to produce two outstanding saves.

Portugal finally equalised in the 37th minute when they capitalised on a turnover by the Qantas Joeys deep in their own half. Portugal moved the ball the length of the field giving striker Helder Costa a one-on-one opportunity with Izzo. Costa held his composure to beat Izzo and level the scores going into the break.

The Qantas Joeys had an opportunity to take the lead shortly after the start of the second half when Yianni Perkatos gathered the ball 35 metres out, turned his defender and hit a cracking left foot strike only to see his shot hit the left-hand post and bounce back into play.

The Qantas Joeys did take the lead again five minutes later from a corner which Portugal failed to completely clear. Boahene gathered the ball and hit his shot into the crowded penalty box. Proai was able to pounce on the deflection to volley the ball into the bottom corner of the Portuguese goal to give him his second of the match.

Portugal immediately responded with another equaliser, when Leandro Silva-s hit a shot from the edge of box which gave Paul Izzo no chance of saving.

Just before the hour mark, the Qantas Joeys again took the lead after they were awarded a free-kick when substitute Dylan Tombides was fouled 30 metres from goal in the middle of the park. Milos Degenek stepped up to take the free kick and hit a sizzling right foot strike which perfectly cleared the Portuguese wall, hit the crossbar and bounced into the goal.

A minute later Portugal again equalised after a ball played down the left from midfield eventually found Helder Costa in the box. Costa who collected the ball and slammed home to notch his second goal of the match.

With 15 minutes to play, Helder Costa was on hand again to score the eventual winner for Portugal, and complete his hat-trick in the process, when he struck a left footed shot from inside the box, following a great passage of play.

Costa could have added another goal to his tally in additional time, but Izzo produced a fantastic diving save to deny the Portuguese striker his fourth.

Speaking after the match, Qantas Joeys Head Coach Jan Versleijen was disappointed that the result wasn-t in his team-s favour but drew positives from the experience.

"We started well and controlled the pace of the game, we played some very good football and this allowed us to build up and score some good quality games, said Versleijen.

“Portugal increased the tempo in the second half and some mistakes and turnovers by us caused the goals.

“The players need to take the lessons learned from today's game and use them to learn for the following matches.

“The idea behind this tour is to play top quality matches before the AFC qualifiers in October and today was a high quality match that we had the opportunity to win,” concluded Versleijen.

In the other match of the tournament, England came back from a two goal deficit to draw 2-2 with Turkey.

The Qantas Joeys face England in their next match of the tournament on Friday 27 August.

The Qantas Joeys are using the FA Men's U17 International Tournament as part of their preparations for the upcoming AFC U-16 Championship 2010 which will be played in Tashkent, Uzbekistan from 24 October - 7 November 2010.